Pingci Village makes its living by growing mung beans.
In the blistering heat of midsummer, it is the perfect time to cool down and clear internal heat with a bowl of mung bean soup.
For each family group, the culinary task assigned to them was also related to mung beans.
Chu Kai and Liao Zhenzhen were assigned to the mung bean pastry group with Jing Yuanwei and Jing Sichen, the father-daughter duo, to ensure their safety and handle any emergencies.
Yan Chi and Chu Zhu followed the production team’s task cards to find the master chef who would teach them how to make mung bean jelly noodles.
“Mung bean jelly noodles, mung bean jelly noodles…” Chu Zhu clutched his card, excitedly chanting the task as he trotted along.
Yan Chi strolled leisurely behind Chu Zhu.
With a chef arranged by the production team to teach them cooking, all he had to do was follow along and learn. The task was not particularly difficult.
“Little Water Chestnut, little brother Chu Zhu.”
A small group of figures stood by the roadside not far ahead.
Yan Chi raised his gaze and saw Wang Zhiling and Wang Zhiyu from House 1, who lived right in front of them.
Following right behind the voice came Wang Zhiyu, who was a full head taller than Chu Zhu.
Wang Zhiling had sharp, stern features, but his inner tenderness was hidden beneath a serious exterior.
Wang Zhiyu was different. He looked more like his mother, an intellectual and elegant host deeply loved by the public, and thus radiated an aura of grace and gentleness from the inside out.
During the house-selection game, when Chu Zhu could not answer a multiplication and division question, Wang Zhiyu did not simply blurt out the answer. Instead, he patiently taught Chu Zhu step by step, allowing Chu Zhu to arrive at the answer himself.
“Big brother Yu,” seeing Wang Zhiyu approach, Chu Zhu immediately shared his task card with him, “Yan Daddy and I are going to make mung bean jelly noodles!”
Wang Zhiyu bent down to take the card. While holding Chu Zhu’s hand and walking forward, he carefully examined the task card and said, “Your hint words are different from ours.”
Chu Zhu wore a puzzled expression, unable to understand what big brother Yu was talking about.
He could not recognize all the words on the card.
The fact that they were going to make mung bean jelly noodles was something Yan Chi had read aloud when he first received the card.
Chu Zhu remembered that when his dad took him out to deliver food, they had bought jelly noodles to eat.
They smelled so fragrant, and even now, just thinking about them made his mouth water involuntarily.
However, his dad had said he was too young and didn’t let him have any.
Today, he asked Yan Daddy, and Yan Daddy said he was older now, so he could eat them and even eat the ones he made himself.
But what were hint words?
Did making jelly noodles require hint words?
Just like in the morning, did they have to answer questions?
“Brother,” Chu Zhu shook the hand holding Wang Zhiyu’s, revealing an eager expression, “what is the question?”
Wang Zhiyu looked at Chu Zhu with a gentle smile and said, “No more questions. These are hint words.”
He patiently explained, “You need to find a chef to teach you how to make jelly noodles. The hint words are clues to help you find that chef.”
Yan Chi, following closely behind, wore a slightly impatient expression.
Although Wang Zhiyu and Chu Zhu were both boys, the production team defaulted to keeping secondary genders private. So how could Wang Zhiyu casually hold Chu Zhu’s hand without knowing whether Chu Zhu was an Alpha or an Omega?
Yan Chi suddenly felt like a wild boar had brazenly rooted up a tender cabbage seed he had just sown.
Wang Zhiling, the father of the supposed wild boar, saw that they had caught up and finally made a move.
He walked side by side with Yan Chi behind Wang Zhiyu and Chu Zhu, taking the initiative to start a conversation. “Xiao Yan, how is it? Is the child easy to manage?”
Wang Zhiling was seventeen years older than Yan Chi, and his form of address and tone carried an inexplicable senior demeanor.
Yan Chi paused for a second, pulling his sharp gaze away from the tightly clasped hands of the two little ones ahead.
He raised his arm, stretched, and said, “Little Water Chestnut is quite easy to manage. He ate lunch and went right to sleep obediently, and after waking up from his nap, he even changed his clothes by himself.”
At this, a trace of doubt flashed through Yan Chi’s eyes.
Did Chu Zhu’s parents actually love him or not?
If they loved him, they shouldn’t use him to make money, nor should they raise him to be so lacking in confidence, with eyes always filled with panic and hesitation whenever he answered questions.
If they didn’t love him, then what were the clothes in his suitcase, neatly organized into sets with labeled tags, and the request attached to his picture book?
[Dear temporary dad of Chu Zhu, could you please read the story from the picture book to Chu Zhu before bed tonight? He has a habit of falling asleep listening to stories. Reading just one story will do; he will fall asleep halfway through. Sorry to trouble you, and thank you.]
That note was very small and printed out, as if trying not to be discovered, but it was stuck on the cover of the picture book in a bright orange color, as if very much wanting to be noticed.
It was a suspected contradiction, a suspected people-pleasing personality.
Yan Chi didn’t understand. Wasn’t it just asking him to read a bedtime story? Did they have to be so humble about it?
He had no way of verifying the degree of parental care Chu Zhu received, but he was certain that such parenting would sooner or later make Chu Zhu even more sensitive, and perhaps even insecure.
“My boy was naughty before, but he’s easier to handle now. It’s just that his resilience to pressure isn’t very strong.”
When Yan Chi snapped back to reality, Wang Zhiling was still holding forth.
“Brother Wang,” Yan Chi said politely before pushing back, countering, “That’s an outdated mindset of yours. Oppressive parenting is out of style now. If I ever have a child, I will never let him suffer even a bit.”
Hearing a differing educational viewpoint, Wang Zhiling smiled and retorted, “What parents don’t cherish their children? It’s just that children won’t learn a lesson if they don’t suffer a little hardship.”
Yan Chi held the opposite view: “When parents teach with dedication, children will learn their lessons all the same.”
Wang Zhiling did not argue further, only smiling and shaking his head.
Young people nowadays, unmarried and without children, harbored nothing but beautiful fantasies.
“You’ll understand once you have kids,” Wang Zhiling muttered a final thought after a few seconds, unable to keep it to himself.
Wang Zhiling’s voice was neither loud nor soft, but Yan Chi heard it clearly.
However, before he could open his mouth to continue the debate, he spotted the Jing family father and daughter at the corner waving at them.
Jing Sichen was deeply attached to Jing Yuanwei; wherever Jing Yuanwei moved a step, she moved a step, and wherever he stopped, she stopped.
Doing much the same was Chu Kai, who was following behind Liao Zhenzhen.
Liao Zhenzhen was a head shorter than him, so he couldn’t completely hide behind her. He could only pull the brim of his hat down as low as possible, adjust his mask, and push up the temporary black-framed glasses he had bought on the bridge of his nose.
The sun stung people’s skin with pain, and the accompanying cameramen were also fully armed with arm sleeves, hats, and sun-protective clothing.
Chu Kai did not look particularly out of place, and no one paid him any mind.
When Yan Chi and Wang Zhiling walked over, everyone except the cameramen had shifted slightly behind them, making it even less likely for anyone to notice Chu Kai, whose guilty conscience kept him making small, nervous movements.
The adults discussed the hint words while the children walked ahead, holding hands, talking, and playing.
The three family groups walked together like a moving landscape of the village, prompting the grandpas and grandmas eating at their doorsteps to take a few extra glances.
Chu Kai also took a few extra glances, watching Chu Zhu make friends.
Along the way, he cast a lightning-fast glance at Yan Chi’s back.
“Is my jelly noodle making simple?”
“It’s all thanks to the master chef.”
“I saw the hint word, I’m heading toward the village committee office.”
“…”
“Wuwah!”
A sudden cry of distress interrupted Chu Kai’s reception of a certain sound wave.
“Xiao Yu, what’s wrong?” Wang Zhiling had been too busy chatting to pay attention to the children and instinctively questioned Wang Zhiyu in a stern voice.
Wang Zhiyu wore a bitter expression, waved his hands, and said, “It’s a fake cry.”
It turned out that Jing Sichen and Chu Zhu were playing a fake-crying game to tease Wang Zhiyu.
Who would have guessed that Wang Zhiyu saw right through it, while the adults actually took it seriously.
Hearing this, Yan Chi pried open Chu Zhu’s hands, which were tightly covering his eyes.
“Yan Daddy,” Chu Zhu blinked his big eyes, the corners of his mouth curling upward, “did I act like it?”
Yan Chi gave Chu Zhu’s head a ruffle, pulled him straight into his arms, and praised, “Like it.”
Seeing the pride on Chu Zhu’s face, Yan Chi felt even more confident about changing him.